A Year in Uruguay

Montevideo, like most big cities, has its share of graffiti, mainly indecipherable scrawls on dumpsters, houses, and statues. Our Uruguayan friends told us that graffiti became much more prevalent after the economic crisis of 2002.

As an economist, "The economy is the cancer of the world" caught my eye, but even more striking was a conversation, of sorts, painted along the wall of Pocitos beach. An exuberant Christian had painted several city blocks of the wall with a stream of religious statements in bold letters. An atheist had responded to every saying with cursive spraypaint, so walking along the beach, it read "GOD LIVES" "inside your stupid head" and a dozen more couplets.

Other graffiti was spray-painted support for soccer teams (Peñarol and Nacional being the most visible) or rock bands (many US and European groups from various decades). Some of it was political, either party slogans or independent outcry. And some were declarations of love or simple declarations of the writer's existence. There were two genres of artistic graffiti, over-sized NYC-style paintings and smaller, and often more interesting, stencil work.


Here is a video slideshow of my graffiti photos from Montevideo:

Labels: art, customs, informal sector, Uruguay, video